Modernism in the Pacific Northwest: The Mythic and the Mystical

Meet the mystics—the four artists who, in the late 1930s and ‘40s, became known as the Northwest School of modern art. Fed by one another’s passions and talents, Mark Tobey, Morris Graves, Kenneth Callahan, and Guy Anderson sought to create art that consciously responded to the world events around them. All saw art as a form of spiritual quest. All were influenced by the Northwest’s swirling mix of Native American and Asian traditions.

Soon, they were known in New York and across the country—regional artists whose visions, for a time, were universal.